Project brings students together in collaboration of music and movement

The three students slowly make their way across the small dance studio in the basement of the Center for the Arts. They start off with backs touching, then a leg winds around the group, then an arm. They fall in a heap, laugh, rise together and continue moving in unison like an odd, rolling sphere to the far end of the room. Then they begin the return trip. But this time with eyes closed — there are “different pathways” when the eyes are closed, instructor Melanie Aceto explains.

In the corner of the room, four musicians — two percussionists, a cellist and a pianist — accompany the dancers. And they play with their eyes closed.

This is Modern 3/Improvisation, a class for sophomore dance majors taught by Aceto, associate professor of dance and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Theatre and Dance. It’s also part of the Live Accompaniment Project, an ongoing collaboration between the departments of Music and Theatre & Dance in which music students play live for dance classes.

The collaboration, which began in 2009 when music students began playing live for Aceto’s modern dance technique classes, is thriving. Since its inception, 14 undergraduate and graduate student musicians have worked with the project, playing for students in classes taught by dance faculty members Anne Burnidge, Jeanne Fornarola, Kerry Ring and Tress Gorman Crehan, as well as Aceto.

The project has become so popular, Aceto says, that she now gets musicians via referrals, as well as by posting fliers. “Last year, my Modern 4 and Modern 5 technique classes had two musicians each, and this year four to five musicians play for my Modern 3/ Improvisation class on any one day,” she says.

Students in the Modern 3/Improvisation class are learning the skills and techniques needed for movement improvisation, while the musicians are honing their own improvisation skills. Aceto says the musicians choose their instrumentation, rhythm, key signature, mood, tempo, etc. based on inspiration from the dancers and from each other.

“They’re not just playing for us. They’re learning about their own improvisation through the dance lens,” she says.

The musicians at Monday’s class were quick to explain why they enjoy playing for dance classes.

Al Chimienti, who received his MM in percussion performance last spring, calls it “therapy in a way.” Master’s percussion student John Smigielski says he’s sharpening skills, while developing new ones. “Instead of reading music, I’m reading dancers,” he says.

Pianist Jiryis Ballan, who is pursuing a master’s degree in composition, says he enjoys seeing the dancers “move to what you’re playing. It’s magical.”

Chimienti and Smigielski both point out that traditional audiences in concert halls are “idle” and “very passive.” “Here, it’s very active; it’s immediate gratification,” Smigielski says. “It balances out what we do so much of in a concert hall.”

And the student dancers relish the opportunity to move to live music.

“It feels like you have your own personal band playing just for you,” one student says.

“It makes a difference being able to see the instruments,” another says. “It gives you a greater appreciation by listening to each individual instrument — something you don’t really attend to in recorded sound.”

Aceto — self-appointed dance accompaniment coordinator and educator — calls the project “a perfect example of making lemonade out of lemons.”

She joined the UB faculty with “a history of having live music for technique classes,” starting with her childhood dance studio to her undergraduate work at SUNY Geneseo through her graduate work at New York University and open professional level classes in New York City.

“Having no budget for live music at UB challenged me to find a way to bring musicians into my class that didn’t involve money,” she recalls. Aware of the numerous opportunities in the field for musicians to play for dance, “I felt good about offering a platform in which musicians would learn the skills and get the studio experience playing for dance while accompanying our technique classes. There is no better way to learn how to play for dance than to play for dance,” she says.

This matchup has been “hugely successful,” Aceto says, “in that we have gorgeous music for class and the musicians, after working with me and other UB dance professors for one semester to two years, go on to play professionally.”

Among the student success stories she cites are Chimienti, now a staff musician at SUNY Brockport; Ross Aftel, a historical musicology and music theory major who has played for classes at SUNY Brockport and the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; and pianist Kevin McFadden, who received his PhD in music composition and is now a paid musician for the UB ballet technique classes. He has been playing for the project since 2009, Aceto says.   

Student musicians are recruited for the project via emails inviting them to play for dance, as well as through posted fliers and word of mouth. They audition for Aceto in the dance studio. She trains, mentors and schedules the musicians, who play for her classes, as well as those of other dance faculty members.

“I’m looking for musicians who can improvise well and have an interest in playing for dance,” she says. Students commit to playing twice a week for an entire semester and can earn credit through the MUS 239/539 Dance Accompaniment course.

She notes that music faculty members Tom Kolor, associate professor of percussion, and Eric Huebner, associate professor of piano, are part of the collaboration and have been “very supportive in encouraging musicians to come my way” and in mentoring students in improvisation as part of the Dance Accompaniment course.

Members of the UB community will have an opportunity to see the premise behind the Live Accompaniment project at a Dance and Music Improvisation Jam taking place from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 26 in the Center for the Arts Mainstage. The evening will feature UB dance students and musicians presenting “an evening of music and movement.”

Those attending are encouraged to bring their cameras and sketch books “to draw, film, write and be inspired by the music and dance unfolding,” Aceto says.

It is free and open to the public.